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Opportunity Management in Construction Projects. How to Utilise Opportunities
Get PDFThis PhD thesis studies various ways of utilising opportunities in construction projects. Enabling the exploitation of opportunities is of interest to project practitioners, aiming to ensure that their projects are delivered on time within the budget.
Opportunity management is a proactive part of project risk management. It aims to achieve project management success with minimum negative effects on the needs of key stakeholders. Previous studies on opportunity management outline response strategies for opportunities and describe how opportunity management processes are coordinated in reallife projects. Case studies show that opportunities can be exploited by applying alternative construction execution methods and implementing scope changes. However, some construction projects still suffer from cost overruns and delays.
This thesis addresses specific knowledge gaps to enable project practitioners to exploit opportunities in construction projects. First, opportunity management literature lacks an extensive set of opportunity management enablers. Such enablers are activities and practices for identifying opportunities in projects. Second, project practitioners should avoid or mitigate negative effects that can be expected from the utilisation of opportunities. For instance, opportunities arising from scope changes that cause project delays, as well as those originating from opportunism, result in negative effects that require mitigation. However, opportunity management literature does not sufficiently address the negative effects associated with such opportunities.
The research questions (RQ) raised in this thesis are as follows:
RQ1: which opportunity management enablers do practitioners apply at various project phases?
RQ2: what effects can be expected from applying the enablers?
The research scope of this thesis is limited to the application of opportunity management enablers at the project level, spanning from the front-end phase through to the completion of the construction phase. This thesis primarily studies the identification of opportunities that can deliver cost and time benefits or add measurable value to clients and end users. The research scope covers opportunity management within construction projects in an international context. The thesis findings are to a certain extent generalisable and applicable to other construction projects worldwide.
A multiphase mixed-methods approach was selected as an overarching research approach for this thesis. The research employed a wide range of research methods, such as literature review, analysis of pre-project data, case study and machine learning (ML). Various datasets were utilised, including peer-reviewed articles and case studies, quality assurance (QA2) reports, project documentation, and project planning data.
The thesis findings suggest that project practitioners apply various opportunity management enablers throughout the project lifecycle, irrespective of the project delivery model. Value engineering (VE) studies, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and waste reduction methods have been frequently used in construction projects. However, the use of workflow improvement planning systems, constructability analysis, and stakeholder management for opportunity identification have been reported less frequently in recent case studies.
Predefining scope reductions at the front-end phase can help optimise the budget. However, an increase in project uncertainty reduces the possibility of predefining scope reductions at the early stage. The most frequent types of predefined scope reductions are associated with quality, functionality and volume.
The thesis findings indicate that contracting parties gain more information about the project’s scope during the construction phase, enabling to perform optimisations. Contractor involvement in the optimisation process facilitates the identification of opportunities. The key element of successful contractor involvement is economic incentives, such as pain/gain sharing. A case study on a railway project in Norway revealed that pain/gain sharing can be applied not only in collaborative projects but also in projects with traditional contracts.
The utilisation of opportunity management enablers typically results in positive effects that can be observed during project execution. VE studies and BIM have proven effective in achieving cost savings. Conducting VE studies can reduce project cost up to 10%. BIM can help avoid redesign efforts and the escalation of project costs in the 10–20% range. Constructability analysis is another viable approach that can reduce costs and shorten project duration. Predefining scope reductions at the front-end phase can address estimated cost uncertainty within the 32 – 69% range. Performing descoping and scope optimisations with contractor involvement through pain/gain sharing can help achieve cost savings of up to 8.63% of the initial contract price.
In addition to the positive effects of opportunities, negative effects also exist. A scope change may represent an opportunity. However, scope changes may cause delays that can compromise business goals and deprive end-users of the utility of the newly built facilities. The pilot ML models presented in this thesis suggest that ML algorithms are suitable for predicting potential project activity delays caused by variation orders (VO) associated with scope changes. The ability to detect potential delays using ML models will improve decisionmaking at the project management level.
Opportunities may arise from opportunism, leading to negative effects. While it is impossible to eradicate opportunism in construction projects, clients need to be prepared to prevent it. The early involvement of knowledgeable project members capable of flagging antecedents of opportunism is beneficial for clients.
The outcome of the PhD research presented in this thesis is a list of opportunity management enablers that have proven effective based on empirical data from large and medium-sized projects. Project practitioners should understand the project context and scope, the peculiarities of the selected project delivery model, and the end-users’ needs to choose a suitable set of opportunity management enablers. Furthermore, the thesis highlights potential negative effects that may arise during the management of opportunities and suggests measures to mitigate them. The selection of appropriate measures depends on the nature of the negative effects, contextual and internal project conditions, and the strategic preferences of the client organisation.
Finally, this thesis suggests that while successful implementation of opportunities relies on the technical expertise of project participants, mitigating the negative effects of opportunity management requires strong soft skills
Opportunity Management. The current state within the project management domain and among practitioners
No full textRisk management is one of the major domains of project management. This process is essential for the successful project delivery and, therefore, widely applied among practitioners. The uncertainty management was introduced providing a possibility for the practitioners to have a broader view on the uncertain nature of the project internal conditions and its context by introducing positive risks, namely, opportunities, into the risk management process. It is believed that opportunity management shall be implemented within the scope of the uncertainty management process. However, as the practice shows, risk identification exercises make the involved individuals focus mainly on the threats’ identification and overlook opportunities.
Proactive opportunity management from the project manager’s perspective is characterized by managing operational and contextual positive risks over the entire project lifecycle. Thus, it is important to distinguish a formalized continuous approach to opportunity management from the stand-alone positive risk identification activities exercised in an ad hoc fashion because monitoring of discovered positive risks and seeking for opportunities on a regular basis throughout the entire project lifecycle prevents from losing a possibility to experience positive effects stemming from their exploitation, making suboptimal decisions and missing out favourable events which could be utilized by the project team to seize benefits.
The management of positive risks deserves serious attention from researchers and practitioners within the field of project management because identification of opportunities and their realisation have a potential to bring about positive effects facilitating the successful project delivery or bring the project back on track in case of cost overruns or delays. However, many researches highlight that there is a lack of studies devoted to opportunity management.
The purpose of this thesis was to define the current state of opportunity management within the project management domain and among practitioners.
The research method in this thesis was comprised of the visualization of the bibliometric networks covering the main research areas within the field of risk and uncertainty management, quantitative data acquisition, performed through a qualitative review of the publications retrieved from the academic databases, with regards to opportunity management-related papers within the project management domain, and systematic review of 46 case studies which describe the application of opportunity concepts and implementation of the opportunity management process on real-life projects.
The findings revealed that identification and exploitation of positive risks recently had not been paid enough attention to among the researchers despite the fact that examples from the real-life projects emphasize the importance of positive risk exploration by providing evidence of significant cost savings, reduced project duration and additional benefits to the project owner or the end-user which stemmed from the application of opportunity concepts.
Even though the majority of the opportunity concepts and positive risk identification methods is the same across the projects of different types and levels of complexity, the nature of their application differs. Restructuring projects usually contain a proactive opportunity hunting spirit in the core of the delivery model. The identification of positive risks on such projects is performed at the operational level since the project context is merged with the internal organizational conditions which represent a layer separating the operational project dimension from the environment external to the organization.
The utilization of the majority of opportunity-related concepts in product development is performed proactively in both project dimensions and eventually results in value creation for the project owner and the end-user after the product release or even during the development stage representing a first-order positive effect. The application of opportunity concepts or positive risk identification methods in product development is not only aimed at cost savings but also value-driven.
On the contrary, positive risk identification activities on construction projects are aimed at saving costs and time. The complexity necessitates the implementation of various positive risk-seeking activities which are performed in both project dimensions. Usually, exploitation and identification of positive risks are proactive at the front-end of the project and performed in a reactive fashion during construction.
The finding is this research provide an opportunity of knowledge transfer between the projects differentiated by application. Since the application of an established continuous opportunity management process was observed only among the practitioners in the construction industry, some features of the said process can be applied on other types of projects.
This research was constrained by some limitations including the comprehensiveness of the representation of critical qualitative information and data about the project objectives, goals, actual costs and duration, and quantitative evaluations of effects stemmed from the positive risks exploitation and return on investment from the application of opportunity concepts. The said constraints provide an opportunity for future research within the domain of positive risk management. Capturing the transformation of the project owner’s opportunity register and the distribution of positive risks between the contracting parties throughout the entire project lifecycle on construction projects implemented under different types of a contract through action research would supplement the decision-making process in the selection of the contracting strategy for the project owner
Opportunity Management. The current state within the project management domain and among practitioners
Get PDFRisk management is one of the major domains of project management. This process is essential for the successful project delivery and, therefore, widely applied among practitioners. The uncertainty management was introduced providing a possibility for the practitioners to have a broader view on the uncertain nature of the project internal conditions and its context by introducing positive risks, namely, opportunities, into the risk management process. It is believed that opportunity management shall be implemented within the scope of the uncertainty management process. However, as the practice shows, risk identification exercises make the involved individuals focus mainly on the threats’ identification and overlook opportunities.
Proactive opportunity management from the project manager’s perspective is characterized by managing operational and contextual positive risks over the entire project lifecycle. Thus, it is important to distinguish a formalized continuous approach to opportunity management from the stand-alone positive risk identification activities exercised in an ad hoc fashion because monitoring of discovered positive risks and seeking for opportunities on a regular basis throughout the entire project lifecycle prevents from losing a possibility to experience positive effects stemming from their exploitation, making suboptimal decisions and missing out favourable events which could be utilized by the project team to seize benefits.
The management of positive risks deserves serious attention from researchers and practitioners within the field of project management because identification of opportunities and their realisation have a potential to bring about positive effects facilitating the successful project delivery or bring the project back on track in case of cost overruns or delays. However, many researches highlight that there is a lack of studies devoted to opportunity management.
The purpose of this thesis was to define the current state of opportunity management within the project management domain and among practitioners.
The research method in this thesis was comprised of the visualization of the bibliometric networks covering the main research areas within the field of risk and uncertainty management, quantitative data acquisition, performed through a qualitative review of the publications retrieved from the academic databases, with regards to opportunity management-related papers within the project management domain, and systematic review of 46 case studies which describe the application of opportunity concepts and implementation of the opportunity management process on real-life projects.
The findings revealed that identification and exploitation of positive risks recently had not been paid enough attention to among the researchers despite the fact that examples from the real-life projects emphasize the importance of positive risk exploration by providing evidence of significant cost savings, reduced project duration and additional benefits to the project owner or the end-user which stemmed from the application of opportunity concepts.
Even though the majority of the opportunity concepts and positive risk identification methods is the same across the projects of different types and levels of complexity, the nature of their application differs. Restructuring projects usually contain a proactive opportunity hunting spirit in the core of the delivery model. The identification of positive risks on such projects is performed at the operational level since the project context is merged with the internal organizational conditions which represent a layer separating the operational project dimension from the environment external to the organization.
The utilization of the majority of opportunity-related concepts in product development is performed proactively in both project dimensions and eventually results in value creation for the project owner and the end-user after the product release or even during the development stage representing a first-order positive effect. The application of opportunity concepts or positive risk identification methods in product development is not only aimed at cost savings but also value-driven.
On the contrary, positive risk identification activities on construction projects are aimed at saving costs and time. The complexity necessitates the implementation of various positive risk-seeking activities which are performed in both project dimensions. Usually, exploitation and identification of positive risks are proactive at the front-end of the project and performed in a reactive fashion during construction.
The finding is this research provide an opportunity of knowledge transfer between the projects differentiated by application. Since the application of an established continuous opportunity management process was observed only among the practitioners in the construction industry, some features of the said process can be applied on other types of projects.
This research was constrained by some limitations including the comprehensiveness of the representation of critical qualitative information and data about the project objectives, goals, actual costs and duration, and quantitative evaluations of effects stemmed from the positive risks exploitation and return on investment from the application of opportunity concepts. The said constraints provide an opportunity for future research within the domain of positive risk management. Capturing the transformation of the project owner’s opportunity register and the distribution of positive risks between the contracting parties throughout the entire project lifecycle on construction projects implemented under different types of a contract through action research would supplement the decision-making process in the selection of the contracting strategy for the project owner
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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